


I Can Tell That We Are Gonna Be Friends

by dispatchwithlove



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Childhood Friends, Developing Friendships, F/M, First Meetings, Fluff, Gen, Humor, Sparring
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-01
Updated: 2020-09-01
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:07:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26237623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dispatchwithlove/pseuds/dispatchwithlove
Summary: The story of how Jane Shepard, a confident and fiery little girl, meets Garrus Vakarian, who doesn't quite know what to make of her.
Relationships: Female Shepard & Garrus Vakarian
Comments: 13
Kudos: 34





	I Can Tell That We Are Gonna Be Friends

“Hey,” Jane called out to the turian kid, Garrus, who lived next door. She had stopped bouncing her ball on the sidewalk, resting it on her hip, so she could stop and talk to him, but his head was ducked down staring at something. And he didn’t look up at her when she stopped. She even stared at him for a few minutes but he never even looked at her. 

“What are you looking at?” she asked when he still didn’t look up. She was afraid her mom would come out and tell her to stop caterwauling at the kid next door, but she wasn’t sure if you could just go into a turian’s yard. She’d been at school on the colony for a few months, but she hadn’t played with any turians yet, so she didn’t know what was ok and what could get you into trouble. 

“Drawings,” he called back. Their voices sounded funny to Jane, like when her cat purred. But she liked her cat, so she reasoned that she would probably like turians too.

“Come over here,” she called out. 

“Why?” he said, still not looking up at her.

“So I don’t have to yell.” Frustrated that he wouldn't just come over, she tried to talk softer but still loud enough for him to hear. “Or else my mom is gonna come tell me to get inside.”

“You could come over here.”

“Can I?”

A shrug was the only answer he gave while he stared down at the drawings, but it was good enough for her, so she opened the gate and walked over to where he was lying in the grass with his book. She sat down with a huff and set her ball to the side. He didn't look up at her the whole time, which only made her curious about what he was looking at. Whatever it was, it must be good. 

“I’m Jane,” she said.

“I’m Garrus,” he answered. She knew that, but she didn’t want him to think she was weird, or creepy, or that she was following him around school or anything. 

“What’s in the drawings?” she asked while trying to peer around his arms. 

“Animals.”

“Those are funny looking animals.”

“They’re from Palaven. I was born there.”

“Oh,” she said.

“You didn’t have to yell when you were standing at the fence, you know. I could hear you. Turians hear better than other species.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know,” he answered, flipping a page in his book. A drawing of some big, scary animal was on the new page, snarling, and it had big claws, and...oh no it had some cute little creature in its mouth. Jane was very glad she never saw one of those in person.

“I don’t like that one,” she told him, hoping to hear him say he didn't like it either. 

“Yeah,” he agreed with her, “they’re big, and mean.”

“Have you seen one?”

He shook his head, but didn’t react much other than that. 

Did he like scary things? Is that why he liked looking at them? And if he liked scary things, was  _ he _ scary? Anxious to know, she asked, “Do you like all those animals? The one with the poor little animal in its mouth?”

His eyes carefully traveled around the page. “No.” That made her feel better. He wasn’t scary then, probably. Even though he had sharp teeth like that big scary animal. 

“Then why are you looking at them? 

“I’m thinking about how to draw them,” when he said that he reached a finger out and traced it along the back of the animal, like he was drawing it with his mind. 

He must like to think about drawing, but why not just draw? Why did you have to think about drawing? She knew she preferred to just do things. Why think about it when you could just try it? Wondering so many things about this turian made her head spin. “Do you want to do something?” Jane asked.

“Do what?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know, play something.”

“You want to play a video game?”

“I don’t like being inside.” She’d spent two years on an Alliance ship because her mom was a doctor. And they didn’t dock on planets that she could just run around on very often. Now that they were living in a house, on a planet where she could just walk around outside anytime she wanted, she didn’t want to waste any time being cooped up inside. 

“Do turians have outside games?”

“Mmm,” he thought hard, still looking at the drawing. “Sparring, shooting -- but you can’t shoot with me -- palae.”

“Is sparring what the turians do at lunch a lot?”

“Yeah.”

Now  _ that _ sounded good. “I want to try that.” She got so excited she was leaning in close to him, and she hoped it didn’t bother him. He didn’t say that it bothered him, so she thought it must be ok. 

“Do you know how to spar?” He looked at her from the corner of his eyes, and she hoped he wouldn't say no, because he said she couldn't shoot guns and she didn’t even know what palae was. And she  _ really _ wanted to spar. The turians at school looked like they were having so much fun and Jane wanted to move fast like them. 

“No, but I’ve watched the turians at school a lot,” she said as she stood up, hoping that would make him say yes. She watched them spar a lot, which meant that she had to know how to do it, at least a little. She was certain watching was enough. 

His eyes stayed on her as she stood up, but instead of getting up with her he continued to lie down in the grass, just looking up at her for a couple seconds before he asked, “Why do you just watch them? Why don’t you ask to spar?”

“I did once and they all just looked at me and said no. And you know what? I don’t think they’re very nice. Maybe they don’t like humans.”

After she said that he got up, but didn’t look very excited about it.  _ Oh well _ , she thought,  _ at least he’s going to play with me _ . 

He hunched his shoulders over a bit, and set his legs into position like she saw the other turians do. She tried to make her body look like his.

“No, put your knee back more, like this,” he told her and pointed down to his leg.

“I’m trying,” she said. “I just think my legs are shaped different.”

After his eyes looked at her legs for a few seconds he finally said, “Fine.”

They watched each other for a moment, she waited for him to do something. Then finally he stalked towards her carefully, like an animal, and before she even knew he was close enough to touch her his leg hooked around hers and she fell on the ground. It didn’t hurt though. She expected it to hurt. She laid there for a minute, blinking up at him while he looked down at her. 

“You’re fast,” she finally said.

“You didn’t even try to block me.”

“I didn't know I was supposed to. And I don’t know how to block.”

He put his hand out and helped her up, then he got into position again and waited for her to, so she did. 

“When I come to knock you down, put your arm out like this.” He waved his arm out and up. 

“Ok,” she said. Feeling confident that she could do it, chest chest puffed up and fists turned into little balls. She could do this. 

As he came at her again, all speed and quick legs and arms, she waved her arm up like he showed her. But it just banged into his hand. And she was down on the ground again. She failed, again. 

They tried a few more times, each time he knocked her down she got more and more frustrated because she couldn't move fast enough and she couldn't even touch him before he had her half way to falling on her butt. 

Finally, she got her arm hooked around his. But it wasn’t enough. He just tripped forward then caught himself...as she went down backwards. Again. Butt smacking on the ground.

“You did better,” he said while standing over her. She’d looked at him from that angle more than any other by that point. There was something about him looking down at her so much that made her blood boil, and she wanted to know what it felt like to look down at him while  _ he _ was laid out on the ground like a fool.

That’s what was making her feel so mad. She looked like a fool. A weak fool. 

He helped her up, and once she got on her feet she gritted her teeth and ran at him, wanting to knock him down  _ so badly _ . He just pushed her back though, and that made her even more angry. He had to fall down at least once too, because this wasn’t fun and it wasn’t fair. 

“You need to calm down because you look like a crazy krogan running at people like that,” he told her. But he was calm. He didn’t even care that she ran at him and tried to push him. What the heck was wrong with him?

Afraid he was going to stop playing with her, she took a few breaths and tried to calm down like he told her to. “I don’t want to try that waving my arm thing anymore,” she finally huffed. “It doesn’t work. I want to try something else.”

He shrugged, then got into position. “Ok.”

He waited for her to get into position again, which she did, but only after stomping and kicking the ground once. Garrus just watched her, looking a little confused. Turians really weren’t like humans, were they?

As she was busy thinking about the difference between turians and humans Garrus ran at her, bounced into the air, grabbed her shoulders, somehow she felt his feet hit her legs, and she was on the ground in an instant with him wrapped all around her. 

He pounced on her, like he was a cat and she was a stupid ball!

And he had knocked her down, again. She didn’t even have a chance to stop him. There wasn't anything else she could do.

She yelled. Loud and hard. Not because she was afraid, and it didn’t hurt at all. She was just so mad. She was just a stupid ball! A ball!

Despite her yelling fit, Jane heard doors open and close and quick footsteps running towards her and Garrus. “Spirits, child what are you doing to that poor little human!” Jane saw Garrus’ mom run up to him, faster than Jane thought she could move, and reach down to pull Garrus off her. 

As Jane stopped herself from yelling, her own mother appeared right behind Garrus’, scowling down at Jane instead of at him. That was to be expected though. Jane knew it was coming right after she yelled so loud. Garrus, his mom, and her mom all towered over her, looking between each other and glancing down at her every once and awhile. They could look all they wanted. She wasn’t going to move, because if she did she might just start yelling again. She could feel it. 

“Jane, get up and stop that caterwauling right now, the whole neighborhood will think you’re being murdered.”

They could think that all they wanted. Jane didn’t care what they thought of her. 

Garrus' mom took him by the hand and guided him away from Jane while she looked over at Jane’s mom. “I am so sorry, Hannah, I have no idea what Garrus is thinking. He knows better than to pounce on a human like that.”

Jane’s own mom just shook her head. “I can assure you, whatever is happening here it was Jane’s idea.” 

“It was,” Garrus answered while looking at his mom, just making Jane even more angry. How did she get stuck with a ninny tattle tale for a neighbor and new friend?

Jane lay prone on the ground still, refusing to get up. So she planted herself right in the grass, arms across her chest and glaring at Garrus, who just stared down at her like she was being weird. He was staring down at her like all those turians at school stared at her. 

Come to think of it, she’d never seen turians be very...sad, or angry, or mad...or any emotion. At least not like her human friends back on the ship. Turians just stared at her a lot. 

“She said she wanted to spar,” Garrus calmly told his mother. 

“ _ You little _ …” Valeria said while looking down at Garrus, “you don’t spar with human children. You are lucky your talons haven't come in, you could have hurt her.” His mom looked down at Jane, still lying in the grass, now with her hands placed calmly over her stomach. It was something Dr. Chakwas taught her to do on the ship to calm herself down after a fit. It must be working because all Jane started thinking about was that Garrus’ mom looked like a really nice mom. “Has he hurt you, Jane?” she asked. 

“No,” Jane adamantly responded. He didn’t. He just surprised her. And she didn’t like surprises. But Jane watched Garrus, and he looked a little bit afraid -- like maybe he thought he hurt her. And then he looked up at his mom, and Jane was really worried that she’d got him in trouble. That wasn’t a very good way to make friends, getting them in trouble. That made her feel guilty for yelling, even though she didn’t really have any control over it. It just happened. 

Their moms said a few things to each other about the neighborhood, or something, and then his mom pinched her fingers around his mandible and drug him away towards the house. It didn’t look rough, though, just a little embarrassing. It was probably like getting pulled by the ear, but turians didn’t have ears. Turians were so different -- it was great. 

Before Garrus and his mom got inside, Garrus looked back at Jane, watching her get up and brushing the grass off her butt. 

“Bye Garrus!” She called out and waved, sorry to see her new friend going inside. 

He looked up at his mom who explained it was a way humans said hello and goodbye. While looking back at Jane he waved his hand just like she did. That made Jane smile. They were friends, then. Good. She waved even harder back at him.

While waving with all the energy she had left she opened her mouth to ask him to play tomorrow, but when she looked up at her mom’s grouchy face she decided not to let the adults know about when they planned on playing together again -- just to avoid trouble. 

Walking down the sidewalk and back to their house, she felt her mom run a hand through her hair softly as she smiled down at her. “Jane, you strange, wonderful girl. You have the oddest way of making friends.”

“I like him,” Jane said proudly, congratulating herself for finding such a wonderful friend. And he was right next door to her own house. They’d be able to play  _ all the time _ !

Once Garrus got inside his house he looked over to his dad, worried about getting in trouble. 

“What was that noise,” his dad asked without looking up from a datapad. 

His mom tsked her tongue, “Your son sparred with that little human next door.

Garrus eagerly looked over at his dad as he sat down at the dinner table, hoping to argue his case. When managing any difficult situation that his dad became aware of, the truth was always the best route.It just so happened that in this case the truth was also accompanied by a sense of justice. So he was confident he’d be in the clear soon. “All the other turians at school wouldn't spar with her, so I felt bad. But I didn’t know she would make that sound.” 

“I had no idea humans could even make that sound,” his dad said, shaking his head a little. But he looked amused, not mad. “Well, did you have fun sparring with a human?”

Garrus huffed, thinking about how hard it was to spar with her properly. “She’s all soft and wiggly, it’s not as easy as sparring with turians, I think.” 

He and his dad shared a soft laugh, their mandibles clicking in amusement. 

“It’s good practice for you then,” his dad said, putting the datapad down and starting to eat from his plate of food. “Go ahead and eat dinner so we can go shoot.”

“Yes Dad,” Garrus answered as his mom came back to the table with Sol in her arms. Sol’s mandibles chittered happily when she saw Garrus. He wondered if Jane had a brother or a sister. He never saw one. He never saw a dad or another mom at her house, either. He thought about what it would be like if it was just him and his mom. He loved his mom, but he decided that if he didn’t have a sister and a dad, his life wouldn't be as much fun. And he’d probably be lonely. Maybe that’s how Jane felt. 

“Do you like the human?” his mom asked.

“I don’t know,” he said, poking around at his food while thinking about the funny little human who sounded like a wild animal when she got mad. ”She’s kinda weird.”

“Well, give her a chance. Maybe you’ll end up liking that she’s different.”

_ Different. _ That word played through his head as he chewed his food. He liked it more than weird, and decided he'd try to use it instead.


End file.
